Cécile: Gates of Gold

The Palace

In the carriage, Cécile is nervous to be herself around Madame and Françoise. What if she embarrasses herself? But Madame explains to Cécile must always tell the truth to her, and Madame will do the same to Cécile.

The ride to Versailles is much bumpier than Cécile had imagined. Multiple times she’s thrown from her seat, and she has to hold on when the driver of the carriage brings the horses to a gallop to move faster during heavy rain. But when everything stops quickly, Cécile, Françoise, and Madame inquire what happened.

The driver explains that two peasant children were playing in the mud in the road, and were trampled by the first carriage. He says the King is giving coins to the families. If only the parents had been watching their children.

Madame is saddened by the news, but the line of carriages moves on. But as they pass, Cécile sees the parents huddled around the bodies of their dead children. The image haunts Cécile’s mind. She knows the peasants don’t have governesses or ladies-in-waiting. Most likely the parents were working hard in the fields to pay the taxes to the King… the taxes that pay for the King’s fancy carriage. Were the lives of the children truly worth just a few coins?

As the carriage continues past a corner in a village, a woman stands outside screaming “Bread! We have no bread!” Madame responds to herself that hunger makes people crazy… but what can be done? But Cécile thinks to herself that Madam’s gold brooch could buy many loaves of bread to feed the hungry.

As the coach nears the palace, Cécile sees the rise of buildings. She mistakenly thinks the palace is a large building, but Françoise responds it’s just a stable. The true palace is much grander than she could imagine. Françoise explains over ten thousand people work in the palace, from nobility, to foreigners, to merchants. And the King likes to keep watch over the whole courtyard; he was threatened a lot as a child, and is very careful now.

As everybody leaves their carriages, there’s music unlike anything Cécile has ever heard—he likes to come and go with big, pompous ceremonies. Cécile can see the crowd’s elaborate clothing, with their low-cut gowns, lacy shirt cuffs, gold-trimmed frocks, and colorful feathers. But all she can see in her mind is the woman begging for bread and the two trampled peasant children.